Tuesday, April 29, 2008

In Chinese cultures, baby boy is very much expected as they will continue on their generation, carrying the family name. Most of Chinese families would try their best and would not stop conceiving until they get at least one boy in the family.

And maybe now there's good news for those who are trying to conceive for a baby boy. UK scientiests have recently revealed in their studies that a child's sex is associated with the mother's diet. The higher energy intake is linked to males, and lower energy intake is linked to females.

Women who eat low calorie diets or who skip their breakfast at the time of conception, are more likely to give birth to baby girls. This may help to explain why the proportion of baby boys is falling in developed countries. Since in these countries, many young women choose to have low calorie diets.

Although a baby's sex is genetically determined by fathers, it is known that high levels of glucose encourage the growth and development of male embryos while inhibiting female embryos. The exact mechanism for this remains unclear.

The researchers conducted studies on 740 first-time pregnant mothers in the UK. They found that 56% of those in the group with the highest energy intake at the time of conception had sons, compared with 45% in the lowest group. Meanwhile, intakes during pregnancy were not associated with sex, which suggest that foetus sex is no longer affected by the mother's diet.

In addition to eating high calorie diets, the study has found that women giving births to more males were also more likely to have eaten a wider range of nutrients, including potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12.

It was also reported that women who consumed at least 1 bowl of breakfast cereal daily compared to those who ate less than or equal to 1 bowl a week, the statistics of giving births to male went up sharply.

The mechanism for diet affecting sex is not yet understood though.

This latest findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Forget where you left your house keys? or where you put your mobile phone? or where you left your glasses? Sounds familiar? It is for me! This condition maybe caused be a virus. Gosh!

Viruses that can affect your brain range from virus of common cold to polio. They can affect brain and cause steady damage, reported by US researchers from Minnesota.

Their study suggests that virus-induced memory loss can accumulate over the lifetime of a person. Eventually it can lead to clinical cognitive memory deficits. This study has been published in the latest issue of the journal Neurobiology of Disease.

The name of the virus is picornaviruses. They have affected more than 1 billion people around the world each year.

The researchers include viruses that cause polio, colds, and diarrhoea. On average, people contract these illness 2-3 times a year.

How these viruses affect our brain, is that when we contract the illness, the viruses cross into the brain and cause a variety of brain injuries. For example, the polio virus can cause paralysis.

The researchers studied the affect of picornavirus family members on mice, and It showed that the viruses injured parts of the brain responsible for memory. In fact, they infected mice with a virus called Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus, which is similar to human poliovirus. Infected mice later had difficulty learning to navigate a maze. Some were barely affected, while others were completely unable to manage.

When the mice were killed and their brains examined, a correlating amount of damage was seen in the hippocampus region, related to learning and memory.

The reserachers also added that one virus particularly likely to cause brain damage is enterovirus 71, which is common in Asia. It can cross over into the brain and cause encephalitis, a brain inflammation that can lead to coma and death.

"We hypothesise that mild memory and cognitive impairments of unknown aetiology may, in fact, be due to accumulative loss of hippocampus function caused by repeated infection with common and widespread neurovirulent picornaviruses."

Meanwhile, other viruses can kill brain cells. They include the herpes virus and HIV.

The cliche, love is blind, you must heard it like thousand times. In early stages of relationship, our partner would seem so perfect and flawless. And it is true that we tend to gloss over our partner's faults. Then comes the time when parents drag our feet on the ground, and tell us that love will pass by after you stay together for a long period of time (like they all do in their at least 30 years of marriage). Some of my relatives even use coke (as in drink) as a metaphor to love. When it is new, it is full of bubbles (to describe hot and passion), however over time, the bubbles will fade away.

And so, we would all come to the understanding that living with your partner would expose their flaws, and thus open our eyes to see clearly who he/she really is as a person. The love will fade as we see more and more flaws and bad habits of our partner.

What I found interesting is that, researchers studying married couples have found that in the happiest marriage, the overrating habit continues. And in fact, it is the glue that keeps the couples together happily ever after!

Indeed, the happy married couples usually are those who tend not to notice their partner's faults, and tend only to remember good times they have been through together. This way of thinking keep them happy, and also good their health. Couples who see things this way tend to have less chronic disease. This is due to how they resolve their conflicts. When it comes to conflict, these couples would sit down and talk about the issue in a calm and rational way. They listen to each other's opinion and/or complaints. And this way, they are less exposed to stress hormones, which are associated with illnesses such as heart disease.

And interestingly, this overrating habit only need to exist in one partner, for the effects to be seen. Knowing this, you do not have to worry nomore when friends or parents telling you that love will fade as time passes. The formula for happy marriage is quite simple. If you are an easy going person, there is higher chance for you to live healthy and happily ever after in your marriage. And if you are more to a serious person who tends to be pessimistic at times, you should find an easy going partner. As easy as that!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Asthma, hay fever and eczema are allergies on top of genetic susceptibility. One of the sources of allergy in the home is house dust mite (HDM).Dust mites live by consuming organic detritus such as flakes of shed human skin, and they flourish in the stable environment of dwellings.

Naturally, they are killed by micro predators and also by direct exposure to the sun rays. You can smell the enzyme produced by HDM most strongly in full vacuum cleaner bags.

There are ways to get rid of dust mites, which include but not limited to pulling up carpets, getting rid of pets like cats, covering mattresses and pillows, spraying soft furnishings with a chemical that knocks off the mite, and vacuuming often with a powerful machine.

However, there has been a debate whether the efforts are worthwhile. A recent trial has reported its findings of trying to do this during pregnancy and the first year of a child's life in families where there was a strong family history of atopy.

Nevertheless, only limited conclusions could be drawn because a lot of families dropped out. But children whose environment was controlled in this way had fewer wheezy attacks in the first year of life. It had no effect on eczema or other allergies. But if the family kept its pet then a lot of this benefit was lost. The benefits later in life are still uncertain.

Okay, now is the time for more self-exposure (^-^) Being a stay home wife (as my hubby do not allow me to work outside), I have all the time in the world to do things at my own pace. Especially the house chores! If I can delay it, I would delay doing those mundane tiring chores. Cleaning and tidying up is not my cup of tea. Hehehe. I wondered whose cup of tea it could be?

Loveee browsing webs, keep myself updated with what's going on out there. Love chatting with friends and families, since it is still the cheapest way to keep in touch. And once in a bluemoon, I met my auntie online (beause I hardly meet her online!). She is a stayhome wife too. However, she's been earning money simply by writing posts in PayPerPost.

I checked the website out, and I can tell you that it is a very interesting website with many interesting offers to earn some dough. Well since I am not doing anything at home, I signed up with PayPerPost. The only requirement is that I need to have a blog, which I already had, and it is about health matters.

I am a very early bird in this PayPerPost (PPP), and still learning how to do stuffs. The web itself is very informative. And if you cannot find any information you search for, you can simply submit a ticket for the question you have to the Customer Support. And they DO get back to you very quickly!!! I submitted my question at midnight, and I already have the answer the next morning I woke up.I like the fact that the Customer Support is very responsive, since like I stated previously that I am new to PPP and still trying to figure things out. I used to work as a Marketing Director, and I can really tell you that service quality is the utmost importance, second directly after your product. My clients love me because I served their needs and enquiries in a very responsive way. And thus, being a customer myself, I expect nothing less than best service quality. To top it off, I notice that those who spend more time in taking up offers from PPP, they could earn as much as and over US$20k!!! Unbelievable. Wow! I can actually buy all those new arrival designer bags!!! Love it!So if you have some spare time, or if you might be a stayhome wife too, it really worths (literally!) your time to pay a visit to the PPP web. As simple as clicking on this link blog network and you can now start making your very own to-buy lists!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

A study was conducted to study the risk of dying from lung cancer due to smoking. It is confirmed that low tar cigarettes do not offer any protection against lung cancer.The study involves nearly a million men and women aged 30 or over followed for six years, and found that smokers of low tar fags smoked more cigarettes per day. It is also found that medium, low and very low tar products had the same increased risk. The only cigarettes to stand out were high tar non-filtered. People who quitted prior to age 35 were similar to never smokers, and people who smoked low tar cigarettes were more likely to quit after a longer period (it was within 10 years). Statistically, low tar cigarettes are even more toxic since the effect was over a shorter smoking career. The theory is that smokers compensate for low tar by inhaling more deeply and consuming more cigarettes. It is suggested that deepn inhalation may lead to more serious cancer since it spreads carcinogens further into the lungs. The other reason is that tar is not such a good measure of the carcinogens in the smoke in the first place.The bottomline is, still, smoking kills. Be it high, medium, or low tar cigarettes. So, ditch your packs of cigarettes now.--------------For ReferenceTitle: British Medical JournalAuthor: Harris JE at el.URL: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/2004, vol 328, pp 72-76

This derives from the latest findings from a British study. The study has found that finance desk jockeys with high levels of testosterone are more likely to have a profitable day. The study involves sampling the naturally occurring steroid levels of 17 traders at a big bank in the city of London. The conclusion was that the more testosterone a trader had in the morning, the more money they made for their bank. Thus, the testosterone level may be a biological explanation for the recent twist and turns on global financial markets.

However, the researchers also believe that the downturn may be contributed by another hormone, cortisol, which is a stress hormone. Cortisol responds really strongly if you put an animal or a human in a situation of uncertainty, novelty or uncontrollability. The researchers believe cortisol may cloud the judgement of people in charge.

The big hypothesis is that extreme levels of testosterone exaggerate financial market bubbles, and extreme levels of cortisol exaggerate a financial market crash. Therefore, the testosterone and cortisol levels might be the biological explanation for what happens when the markets become so volatile.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

There are several reasons underlying why women are hard to conceive. These include, possibility of a structural problem with the reproductive organs, like blocked fallopian tubes, or a disease of the uterus like fibroids or endometriosis.Most of the cases are due to a failure of ovulation. The eggs do not ripen and release when they are supposed to, usually caused by a hormonal imbalance. And at older age, our body is not producing enough sex hormones at the right time and in the right amounts to ovulate successfully.There are good news to couples who are trying to conceive, without having to undergo methods of assisted reporductive technology. In late 2007, the US. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School say that adopting a few lifestyle measures can drastically improve the chances of getting pregnant, at any age.

They followed a group of 17,544 married women who were infertile due to ovulation failure but who were trying to get pregnant. The women were part of a larger study of women's health called the Nurses' Health Study II, based at the Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard. The researchers followed them over an eight-year period, looking in particular whether or not they followed a range of dietary and lifestyle measures. They looked at:- the ratio of mono-unsaturated to trans fats in their diet- protein consumption (and whether it came from animals or vegetables)- carbohydrate consumption (including the amount of fibre they ate, and whether high or low glycaemic index)- consumption of dairy products (and whether low or high-fat)- iron consumption- use of vitamin supplements- body mass index (BMI, i.e. weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres)- degree of physical activity.

The researchers took into account whether a woman smoked, drank alcohol or coffee, and/or had used oral contraceptives in the past.

Those women with the lowest rate of infertility (and most likely to fall pregnant) were those who ate less trans fat, less sugar, ate food with a low glycaemic index such as pasta and whole grains, ate more protein from vegetables than from animals, had a good iron intake, took multivitamins, exercised daily, kept their BMI between 20 and 25, and (surprisingly) consumed more high-fat dairy products and less low-fat dairy products.

The more of these measures they adopted, the lower the infertility rate and the higher the pregnancy rate. This was regardless of the woman's age, or whether she'd had children before.For example, those who adopted just five of these measures had a 69 per cent reduced risk of infertility compared to those who adopted none of the measures.

Even following just one of these lifestyle measures reduced the risk of infertility by 30 per cent compared to those women who followed none. Of all the lifestyle measures, weight and diet, rather than exercise, were the most important.

These measures improve fertility was believed is to be caused by improved insulin resistance. They help regulate insulin and blood sugar levels and this in turn may help the sex hormones to regulate ovulation successfully.

Why high fat dairy products help remains a mystery though.Now adopting these measures won't necessarily work for other types of infertility, such as blocked fallopian tubes. But what it does mean is fertility due to ovulation problems, which account for most infertility cases, can be partly prevented through modifications of diet and lifestyle, the authors say.

The researchers also added that these measures are also good for the pregnancy if a woman does conceive. Taking multivitamins containing folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects in the foetus. And keeping weight down reduces the chances of pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia.

For those of you who are trying to conceive by undergoing IVF (In vitro fertilization), you can relieved now because there is a way to improve the success rate of IVF.

IVF is a technique in which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the woman's womb, that is in vitro. IVF is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of assisted reporductive technology have failed. Though IVF is an option, but it's time consuming, expensive and has a high failure rate. Couples usually need to undergo IVF for several cycles before they succeed.

Now you may want to look at traditional Chinese acupuncture to improve your pregnancy chances. The theories behind it is may be caused by release of hormones which control our menstrual cycle, and relief of stress (oh well, you should ask your Chinese 'sinshe' for futher details).

Researchers have brought together all the trials they could find of needle acupuncture versus pretend acupuncture in women having an embryo transferred as part of IVF, to see what the sum of the evidence might be. Seven trials involving over 1300 women met the strict criteria of inclusion.

When there was active acupuncture, the pregnancy success after embryo transfer was higher. Around nine or 10 women had to have acupuncture for one to fall pregnant or take home a baby. When the researchers looked at studies where the background success rates of IVF were already high, the add-on benefits of acupuncture were less.

The indications show that acupuncture might do the job. But given it is cheap and relatively harmless, it may save you time and money to help falling pregnant.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

I believe most of us, since we were young, are stuffed with carrots and carrots and carrots. Especially us who need the help of specs, our mom will just stuff more carrots down our throats. And we will most likely continue this habit to our children. Well, probably you won't do it anymore after reading this.

A major Australian study called the Blue Mountains eye study, examined the link between increased vitamin A consumpiton and deteriorating night vision in older people. This study was conducted in late 1990s. The results was that the vitamin A intake didn't improve their eyesight.

This is also supported by Professor Algis Vingrys, from the University of Melbourne's Department of Optometry and Vision Services. According to him, if you already have a well balanced diet, no amount of carrots will improve your eyesight. The balanced diet should contain sufficient vitamin A, iron and other provitamins i.e. substances that our bodies can convert into vitamins.

There are two types of vitamin A: retinoids and carotenoids.

Retinoids are a lipid form of vitamin A found in liver, fish oils containing liver (e.g. cod-liver oil) and butter. However you should be careful in consuming these, as overdosing can lead to toxicity, or worse, promote some forms of cancer.

Carotenoids are provitamins your body converts into vitamin A. These can be found in carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and dark-green leafy vegetables all contain beta-carotene, a potent carotenoid. But if you already have enough vitamin A, your body will not convert these into vitamin A. This is why it is said earlier that no amounts of carrots will improve your eyesight.

So after all, the important thing is to have a balanced diet, and you do not have to worry nomore about consuming certain amount of carrots everyday.

Friday, April 11, 2008

I have a prolonged and luckily quite mild backpain (unbelievable, I said lucky!). The back pain has been ongoing for quite a while, every day, for the last 4 months. I do not dare to hit the gym as usually I always go for treadmill, and treadmill only. It ain't good for back pain because running causing more strain put on our back. And so, I haven't been exercising at all since I first experience the back pain. However, after reading one of the article about exercise after backpain, it really change my opinion on not taking exercise at all.

Maybe some of you also experience backpain. Most of my friends do. Back pain can easily be caused by as simple as not sitting in the right position for a period of time. Some people will only experience back pain for several days, and then the pain will pass. Some of us, including myself, will still in strife few weeks or months down the road. What important is to avoid the back pain becoming long term.

An Australian trial looked at the role of general exercise supervised by a physiotherapist and advice aimed at a steady return to regular activities and found that they both made a significant difference to pain reduction compared to routine care. The exercises were aimed at fitness and increasing tone rather than focussed on the back specifically.

It's being increasingly recognised that the stability of the back is more than just having strong abdominal or back muscles and that being active has all sorts of benefits including improving your state of mind.

Australian physiotherapists have also pioneered techniques for strengthening what are called your core muscles. These are the ones along the inside of your spine and can be helped by using biofeedback to become more aware of them.

You can also find helf from experienced back physios for this core strengthening.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

During pregnancy, does a woman lose her hair, no changes to her hair thickness, or hair grow thicker?We might all guess that a woman will lose her hair during her pregnancy, like myself and my frens assumed. The correct answer is, a woman's hair grow thicker during pregnancy!

The underlying reason is hormones. Initially, human hair has a life cycle, from growing to falling out (or rather is pushed out by the new hair frowing in the follicle). During pregnancy, this cycle changes.

When a woman is pregnant, oestrogen extends the hair growth cycle. Hair stays in for longer period before falling out. This explains why women in later stages of pregnancy have very thick hair.

But this 'advantage' stops when a woman gives birth. Once a baby is born, the level of oestrogen drops back to normal, and the hair grown during pregnancy stop growing and remain dormant for a few months.

About 3 months after the baby is born, the mom start to lose her extra hair. This usually happens in the same time when the baby starts to play with his/her saliva. Many traditional grandmothers could right away tell that a mom is losing her hair, only by noticing the baby starting to play with his/her saliva.

Hair loss may vary from person to person. But don't be afraid, as hair loss only lasts for a few months. Hair growth should be back to normal 12 months after birth. So my suggestion is, flaunt it while you have it!!!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The following guidelines of which works better, to help you lose weight more effectively (^-^)Diet vs ExerciseThe common question is, which will work, diet or exercise? The answer is both.If you hate exercise and want to lose weight just by changing your diet, you're setting yourself up to fail, says Dr Chris Tzar, an exercise physiologist from the University of New South Wales. Choose this path and there's a 90% chance you'll regain any lost weight within three years, he says.

That's because dieting without exercise increases the odds you'll lose muscle from your body along with any fat. Since muscle cells burn more energy than fat cells, even when you're not actually doing anything, losing muscle makes it harder to lose weight and keep it off. That's why so-called resistance training, which builds muscle strength, is recommended, along with more aerobic exercise such as walking, swimming or running.In addition, more muscles increase metabolism. So even when you are sleeping, you can still burn calories!In contrary, if you love eating yummy foods and cannot change your diet, and you prefer to exercise instead, what you can do is to look at how much exercise it takes to burn off a single slice of apple pie (two hours walking) to realise that for most people, losing anything more than a few kilos through exercise alone will be challenging. It's unlikely you'll be able to work out enough to make up for any significant amounts of eating (let alone past amounts of eating). And like exercise, a good diet makes you healthier on the inside too.Bottom line: Keep your food intake in check and exercise on regular basis.Fat Burning ExercisesOkay. Now you hit the gym to start exercising. But which exercise is more effective in helping you to lose weight?"Is walking more fat-burning than jogging? Well, if you walk for three hours it might be more fat burning than jogging for 15 minutes. One of the most important factors…is whether people are going to sustain the activity long-term" to quote Dr Tzar.

He recommends people try a range of different activities: to find out what they like, to help prevent boredom, and to reduce injuries.

What about those diagrams on exercise machines that suggest the body's 'fat burning zone' occurs at a low level of exertion? Unfortunately these are very misleading.

The body burns three types of fuel, i.e. fats, carbohydrates and protein. As exercise intensity increases, the proportion of the fuel mix coming from fat decreases, however the absolute amount of fat burned remains fairly stable, Tzar says: "It may be a smaller percentage but of a larger quantity."

To maximise your fat burning, high-intensity exercise is almost certainly the better option. In other words, ignore the diagrams and don't restrict your exertion because you think it somehow means you'll burn more fat.

Bottom line: Find one exercise activity that you like, that you can do at greatest intensity for a sustained period of time, is the best way to lose weight.Best Time of Day to ExerciseTechnically, the body's preference for burning fat is slightly higher first thing in the day. However, early morning exercise maybe harder for us to do, because we are generally less alert, our body temperature is low, and joints are stiffer. Bottom line: The best time of day to exercise is the time of day that allows you keep doing it, preferably on a regular basis.Counting Kilojoules?Counting Kilojoules on food that you consume can be quite depressing and time consuming, especially for us who is busy at work.Many experts also feel it's unnecessary and possibly psychologically unhealthy to count Kilojoules. Even WeightWatchers recently moved to offer an alternative 'no count' weight loss plan for those put off by the prospect of weighing foods and keeping records.Chris Tzar agrees, "The reality is, if you're having a diet adequate in fibre, low in glycaemic index [that is, the carbohydrates are the type that break down slowly], and you're minimising your saturated fats, it's highly unlikely you're going to be overdosing on calories."Bottom Line: Following the general principles would be sufficient. You do not have to feel obliged to count the Kilojoules.How Often to WeighOne study found that people who concentrated on being healthy, by improving food choices and getting more exercise, weighed less after 12 months than another group who thought more about weight.Daily weighing is unnecessary at all. The weight loss you see on the scale may not be loss of fat, but most probably is simply loss of water in your body. And sometimes, you may not see any weight loss at all. This is because weight loss isn't linear. It could range from a quarter of a kilo to a kilo per week.Bottom Line: If you would like to keep track of your weight loss from day to day, you may want to weight on daily basis. However, if you are easily discouraged, weekly or monthly weighing might be better than doing it on daily basis.

I believe many of us do experience this so-called yo-yo diet. Sometimes we lose weights, we get happy, allow ourselves some snacks and yummy guilty foods to celebrate our 'achievements', and before we know it, the fat is back on!!!Of course those with very very strong willpower and self control can manage to keep the fat off for a long period of time. But not everyone of us is very strong willed. At times, we will fall down to the "pampering" ourselves with good food.Not that good food is bad. What you can do is eat in moderate amount, spread your food intake into many times a day, 5 times a day will be enough to keep you feeling full, and avoid hunger which can lead you to eat excessively at once. Regular exercise will keep you in the right track.But willpower and self control tend to fail. The question is, how to keep yourself in check.There is a US trial involving over a thousand people started with a six-month weight loss program, during which they lost an average of 8.5 kg.

After this they were randomly allocated to 1 of 3 groups for 2 and 1/2 years: doing things for themselves with some written advice; a web-based interactive program which got them to feed in their weight and activity levels and encouraged increased exercise and sensible eating behaviours; and finally, a third group was allocated to monthly personal contact from a trained person, both by phone and face to face.

The good news was that everyone weighed less than they did at the start. The bad news was that it wasn't the intial 8.5 kilos.

Almost everyone regained weight, but those who'd had personal contact put less back on than the others, to the tune of about 1.5 kg.

The web-based program looked good to begin with, but soon lost its effect.

It's not cheap, but it looks as though to slow the passage of food from hand to mouth, what you need is having someone on your back.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

I believe many of us living in Asian countries regularly consume soy, such as soy bean milk, particularly in Singapore. One can actually find at least one shop selling soy bean milk when walking down the roads in Singapore. There are in fact many shops selling soy bean milk in malls here in Singapore.The high demand for soy bean milk was of course derived from our knowledge that soy bean milk is very beneficial for health, in the hope for cancer and heart disease free in the future.But the actual fact is that, with heart health, it takes a lot of soy to reduce your bad cholesterol by just a tiny amount, although soy whole foods may be good because they replace unhealthy nutrients.

And with cancer, the large amounts of soy taken by Asian populations may reduce breast cancer risk by a little. But recent gene research suggests that your genetic profile affects your response to soy. Some genes may increase cancer risk with high doses of soy and some may reduce it.So my suggestion is for you that do not live in Asian countries where it is quite hard to find natto, miso, tofu, soy bean milk, you might start lowering your efforts in searching and/or buying those foods, in consideration of the above research.